What does it mean to put one's house in order? A long-festering family secret collides with timeless grace.
Fowler House, with its odd nooks, dicey wiring, and vast, unfinished attic playroom, shelters preteen Larkin. And yet, the house speaks of secrets no one else will. Wild creatures weigh in: a muskrat, fireflies, snails, a vesper bat. The menacing garfish. Troubled parents take on repairs: clanking radiators, crumbling plaster, and beloved Uncle Dunkel, finally home from the war in Korea, his mind splintering. Over three years, lived in the moment by Larkin—and relived in hindsight by Eldergirl—doors open and truth, long-stifled, emerges.
“The voice in these remarkable poems belongs to a girl, a spy, a recorder of daydreams and memories of a home and a war-torn, beloved uncle, whose grisly suicide was a family secret. These poems are handprints left in cement. Once you pick up this book, you will be unable to put it down.”
—Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, poetry editor, The Christian Century
“In the memorable voices of her younger and older selves—Kid Larkin and Eldergirl—Laurie Klein beautifully reckons with the ghosts of her family past. Shakespeare said, ‘Give sorrow words,’ and that is what Klein has done with elegiac excellence. Until, in her words, ‘all that was liquid, in the beginning, / resurfaces somewhere: / the rivers of Eden, the tears of Christ.’”
—Paul J. Willis, author of Somewhere to Follow
“As Klein’s editor, for both of her full-length collections, I am delighted to see the arrival of this ambitious new book. It is a memoir of the unspeakable, that takes on a family’s disturbing sorrow with remarkable innocence, beauty, and hope.”
—D.S. Martin, author of Angelicus
“An often haunting but ultimately hopeful story-in-verse, Laurie Klein’s powerful House of 49 Doors explores the sacrifices we willingly or unwillingly make for others. This is a book that needs to be read, especially by those who have been trained to keep secret what pains them most. Come. Her hand is steady. Take hold.”
—Marjorie Maddox, author of In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind
